Washington, D.C. — December 27, 2011 —
The Voice of America is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first U.S. radio broadcasts to China, which began the 28th of December 1941, just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the start of World War Two.
Voice of America was still months away from being officially established when the first Chinese language shortwave broadcasts were transmitted from studios in San Francisco. U.S. government broadcasting operations to China were eventually moved to New York and then Washington under the Voice of America.
VOA Director David Ensor hailed the distinguished line of journalists who have worked at the service and transformed it into a modern multi-media platform. “Because of the professionalism and creativity of our journalists, the Voice of America is a trusted source of news to the people of China and the world,” Ensor said. “As we move forward, we plan to make VOA programming even more vibrant and dynamic.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) hosted a reception to honor VOA’s China Branch journalists. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement congratulating Voice of America for “70 years of outstanding broadcasts to China.”
VOA programs in Mandarin, Cantonese and Tibetan are delivered on radio, television, the Internet, mobile platforms, satellite, and by proxy servers designed to circumvent Chinese Internet blocking. VOA English language teaching programs, including the social media sensation, OMG! Meiyu, enjoy a large audience in China.
For more information contact Kyle King at the VOA Public Relations office in Washington at kking@voanews.com. For more information about any of our language service visit our main English website at www.voanews.com, or visit the VOA Public Relations page at www.insidevoa.com.
The Voice of America is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of about 141 million people. Programs are produced in 43 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.
(VOA)